“He tried to remember how this happened—how she went from someone he’d never met to the only one who mattered.”

Eleanor is the new girl in town and she couldn’t stand out more if she tried. She has very curly red hair, strange clothes and a messy life at home. On her first day in her new school, she takes a seat on the bus next to Park. Park knows that making himself invisible is the only way to get through school but to Eleanor, he isn’t invisible – he’s amazing. Slowly, with the help of comic books and mixed tapes, their friendship grows.

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This book had me hooked from the very first page. I couldn’t put it down and I didn’t want it to end – I was in a bit of a dilemma.

Eleanor & Park is set in 1986, over the course of one school year. The novel is written in third person but alternates between Eleanor’s and Park’s point of view the entire way through. I loved this because it wasn’t just one of the characters you were connecting with, it was both of them. You could understand both of their lives, their thought processes and their reactions to different situations. My very favourite thing about the novel is how well Rainbow Rowell managed to capture the feeling of falling in love. Starting from the small gestures at the start of the relationship to actual dates and having dinner with the family. I’m sure that whatever your age, if you’ve been in love Eleanor & Park will make you feel pretty nostalgic. I’m now in desperate need of more Rainbow Rowell.